We have found that the New Testa- men Church had a tremendous experi ence of power simply because they were faithful to that which the Lord had committed to them -— that their lives and language were to be a demonstra tion of the risen life of Christ, what ever that might mean or whatever it might involve. That was all that they were commissioned to be, and with this demonstration they turned the world upside down. Now this summer I have been to many conferences in America and I have counseled with many people. Sometimes the counseling has taken much time while other periods have been virtually short conversations. I have heard the same story again and again — it is the same story I heard in Hamburg, Germany, in Denmark, England, Ireland and Scotland. Wher ever I go the story comes from Chris tians who realize that they have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, that they have come to the Cross and had their sins forgiven and yet, there is something missing in their Christian life. In every case what they are saying is that there is an absence of power in then- life. This point is of tremendous impor tance as we bring it to you, for there may be someone reading these mes sages who has this problem in their life today. They may be a Christian trust ing the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Saviour. It may be weeks, months or years that you have known Christ as your Saviour but you may have to admit that the one thing miss
ing in your life is power. You may know the truths of the Word, and can quote them with comparative ease. You may know many of the doctrines. Ybu may be a regular reader of the Word, and even preach the Word. But you are conscious of one thing — an ab sence of power. What I want you to see is that what we have been thinking of relates direct ly with what we have spoken of in the first two messages. You see that all these people in the early church had was power — and then we saw that they had this power because they were faithful to what Christ had said: they were going to be witnesses to His risen life. We must see this fact: just as the risen Lord did not belong to this world, so the kind of lives the Apostles lived were going to be supernatural, and that is where you and I miss out. We have a sense of having so much and yet are utterly ineffective. Much of the reason of this weakness springs from one thing in particular and that is from the present day preaching of the Gospel. I used to preach and call people to the Cross that they might recognize they were sinners and could there find forgiveness of their sins. That was the ultimate of my message. Yes, we thank God for those who come to trust in Christ as their Sav- ious. They are Christians, their sins are forgiven, they have a home in hea ven and now their job is to go out and grow in Grace and be a soldier for Christ. They must join the church and leam more of the Word of God. 28
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